I wanted to be an engineer starting my junior year of high school because I realized how valuable and essential energy is for mankind. I can remember a time specifically when I was sitting in class researching the petroleum field and came across a stat that tallied 81% of The United States energy comes from oil, coal, and natural gases, all of which are fossil fuels. America relies on these fuels to do a numerous number of tasks, such as, running cars, heating our houses, and providing us with the electricity to do whatever extra stuff we want.
The work we as petroleum engineers is extremely important, not just to me and the people who are passionate about it, but for the rest of the world who needs energy. I feel very confident in saying that petroleum engineers have one of the five most important jobs on the planet. Not only is what we do essential for living but dating back to since we started using fossil fuels, it has been the ultimate persistent driving force for human prosperity. By our greatest times coming at the hands of fossil fuels, I find that it is morally right that we continue to use them because it is the most desirable global energy choice for the future of our country and world. The question for another energy source shouldn’t even be talked about when it comes to a global energy source.
The reason fossil fuels will continue to dominate is because alternative energy has so many variables to it. For example, before I go into detail, wind turbines are alternative energy source, but it has one super huge variable to it, the wind does not blow 365 days a year and 24 hours a day. It uses the kinetic energy of the wind and converts it into electrical energy but if the wind is not blowing then you are essentially out of luck because there is nothing you can do to generate enough wind to power the country, let along the world! There cannot be any way possible that renewable energy sources find a way to provide enough power for the whole world, I know this because even fossil fuels cannot provide that right now. So, if we are not going to get more energy for everybody, why even try to make a change to the system that is bringing us the most reliable energy.
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The people who argue for the switch to fossil fuels to renewable energy are just really planet friendly environmentalists. They care more about the planet than the people in it, they think that we could stop climate change drastically if we stopped the burning of fossil fuels. This case or argument would be very credible if there were no other major things that contributed to global warming. We cannot both provide an adequate amount of energy and still provide for the whole world, there are too many variables that go into renewable alternative energy. This is why I will always stand beside the use of fossil fuels because I want everybody to have the adequate amount of energy to do whatever they want whenever they want, nothing is going to provide that like fossil fuels do. By saying this though, I am not saying I do not care about our beautiful planet because I most definitely do, I just do not feel as if the discontinuation of fossil fuels will help us destroy the planet any slower than we already are.
The main reason I feel like we should not deviate from the use of fossil fuels is our flourishing comes directly at the hands of these fossil fuels. The world needs so much cheap, dependable, sufficient energy for our daily tasks to be completed. There are roughly 325.7 million people who live inside of the us and about 7.53 billion people worldwide who always need this reliable and sufficient energy. In the US, we have the most reliable and cheap energy (courtesy of fossil fuels) so we get to do whatever we want, but of those 7.53 billion about 3 billion people don’t have our standard of energy which means we need more abundantly more energy for these struggling places. I also feel like no other industry is perfect enough to produce energy like the fossil fuel energy for the world because engineers are some of the worlds smartest people who are extremely passionate about providing energy.
I wanted to be an engineer when I first searched all of my career options in high school because I knew that the petroleum and fossil fuel industry has a great, unmatched ability to provide our energy for us. I know this because the fossil fuel industry provides about 4/5 of the worlds energy because we are the only profession that has mastered how to create sufficient, cheap, and reliable energy for the whole world. I could not have chose a better career choice because I know what we do is extremely important and I love to do meaningful things. Although I feel like fossil fuels are the clear choice for our energy means, I do have my reservations and concerns. My biggest concern is the same concern as the environmentalists, we just disagree on the severity of how good or bad they are impacting the world.
Even though there is way more good than bad that fossil fuels do, it still does bad. The main environmental concern I have about fossil fuels is its impact on the climate. We as humans need to take a step back and realize that our flourishing has some consequences if they keep on getting worse than they are. Concerns are: the impact CO2 has with its warming effect, its impact with CO2’s fertilization, and the financial situation it puts us in by protecting it. Everybody who has taken chemistry knows that CO2 has a greenhouse effects that hurts the atmosphere. Even though this is true, the impact of CO2 is kind of miniscule therefore there is no way possible it can be justified to replacing fossil fuels.
Aside from its small warming effect, CO2’s fertilization effect is a positive and powerful reason for us not to worry about us releasing CO2 into the atmosphere. It has been proven that CO2 is a consistent variable in plant growth, hence the absurd amount of CO2 in greenhouses. CO2 has also been credited for its amazing work yields. It has assisted crop yields and millions of people avoid malnutrition and or starvation. All of these things that environmentalists list as problems are not problems at all aside from the miniscule arguing point that it releases CO2 into the atmosphere. This is by far the most reliable way for us to get energy, but some have argued if by doing this made the fossil fuel industry immoral. This is simply just not the case.
After examining the worlds standard of living, I have come to the conclusion that there is no way possible we can want the planet to flourish and want a completely environmentally friendly planet. This is highly hypocritical of those who are calling for fossil fuels to be reprimanded. Instead of tearing down the one viable, reliable energy source, we need to release the notion that nuclear and hydroelectric power is wrong. Because the world has turned into such and environment-friendly place we have so many people that are against fossil fuels, nuclear power and hydroelectric power. This is completely robbing those 3 billion people who are struggling with energy get the energy they need! We need to shift the conversation from fossil fuels vs renewable energy to how can we provide more energy for humanity. This, is the morally correct thing.
